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New Statesman
21 hours ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
We must fight the deepfake future
Photo by Jonathan Brady/Alamy Penny Mordaunt broadsworded her way into Britain's collective imagination when she became the unexpected breakout star of King Charles III's May 2023 coronation. We had lost one stoic queen; here was another. Mordaunt bore the Sword of State, the heaviest in the royal collection, for 50 minutes. The world watching, Mordaunt kept her face composed, the image of ceremonial gravitas, strength, tradition and honour. But imagine that face smeared across violent pornography. Speaking to BBC Newsnight recently, the former Conservative MP and cabinet minister revealed that she had been a victim of deepfake pornography while serving in parliament. Her face, along with those of other female MPs including Priti Patel and Angela Rayner, had been digitally placed onto explicit videos. 'It was deliberately humiliating and violent,' she said. Deepfakes are the latest grotesque frontier in the battle for digital dignity, where artificial intelligence is weaponised to humiliate, disempower, and violate women's bodies. And the harm inflicted is not virtual – it can be as real as any other form of sexual violence. Headlines in 2013 may have asserted otherwise: 'No harm in simulated rape videos (as long as they are well made), say ministers' ran in the Telegraph. Though this predates the inception of deepfakes by a few years, it is grim that, even today, some still think this basic principle of female autonomy is up for debate. Digital violence is violence, as Mordaunt understands. 'The people behind this,' she said, 'don't realise the consequences in the real world when they do something like that.' Since the first deepfake was created in 2017, AI-generated, sexually explicit videos have proliferated across the internet. A study assessed that half a million deepfakes were shared in 2023; this year's total is expected to be eight million. Of all deepfakes, 98 per cent are sexually explicit, and 99 per cent of those are of females. This technology is both misogynistic and, as it stands, unregulated. Worse, it is now so sophisticated that viewers no longer realise they are consuming fakes. We stand on the precipice, looking at potentially an entire generation of young males whose sexual understanding of consent is being warped by digital hallucinations. Keir Starmer's government has shown some willingness to take on issues related to deepfakes. Amendments to the Online Safety Act, which require pornography websites to implement age-verification measures, came into force on 25 July. The aim is to prevent children from accessing explicit material, and thereby protect them. But we might note the unnecessary protractions before the legislation was introduced. (While it is illegal to distribute deepfakes, it is legal to create one. Rishi Sunak pledged to legislate against the production of deepfakes in April 2024 though said legislation never materialised; Keir Starmer pledged the same in January 2025, yet production remains legal.) We may also note that a lot of porn lives outside of traditional porn sites, instead circulating on the murky backwaters of Telegram groups, Reddit threads, and 4chan. Whatever the measures, we need more of them. AI-driven deepfake porn is a disturbing new theatre of abuse advancing, like all AI developments, at an alarming pace. But technology is made by humans. The scaffolding of our digital lives is designed, curated, and upheld by other people. The sword Mordaunt held at King Charles' coronation was historic and symbolic. Today, her sword is rhetorical: a call to action against the degradation of female autonomy, identity, and safety in a world that increasingly treats women's faces and bodies as public property. Mordaunt has exposed a frightening fault line in British society. Children are given unfettered access to pornography. Women are transformed into digitally altered chimeras without consent and without recourse. Allowing this to continue is not just a regulatory failure but a cultural one. Technological change is relentless; violence against women is perennial. The internet is hard to contain and full of malicious actors. But we must summon the will to protect basic privacies and dignities. However heavy, we should pick up and carry that sword. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe [See also: Schools need more sex education, not less] Related
ABC News
7 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Trump, Epstein and the story that won't go away
Jeffrey Epstein is back in the headlines, and this time, it could get dangerous for Donald Trump. As conspiracy theories collide with real political fallout, journalist Emily Maitlis unpacks the story that just won't die. Why is the US Congress so afraid of what Epstein's files might reveal? Why is Trump struggling to contain a narrative he once helped fuel? And what does this all say about truth, power, and accountability in 2025? Plus, Maitlis explains why Keir Starmer's global statesmanship isn't landing at home, and why Nigel Farage is nipping at his heels. Guest: Emily Maitlis: Co-host of The News Agents, former BBC Newsnight presenter, and the journalist behind the viral Prince Andrew interview. Recommendations: Hamish: Ali France's Tragedy to Triumph segment on the ABC's 7:30 Report Geraldine: The Briefing Room – Is The Tide Turning on the Ukraine War? Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at
Daily Mirror
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Chilling warning as Penny Mordaunt victim of 'humiliating' AI deepfake porn video
Dame Penny Mordaunt said her face was used in an image generated by artificial intelligence (AI) - which she described as 'deliberately humiliating and violent' Former Tory Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt has described being the victim of deepfake porn. Dame Penny said her face was used in an image generated by artificial intelligence (AI) - which she described as "deliberately humiliating and violent". The ex-Defence Secretary and former Commons leader, who lost her seat at last year's general election, said it had happened to a number of parliamentarians. Deepfakes usually involve photos of a person being digitally altered using AI to create a nude image or video without an individual's consent. Dame Penny told BBC Newsnight: "My face had been used, AI porn generated, deep fake porn. I would ask the people behind this, you know, don't they realise the consequences in the real world when they do something like that. "Although I haven't seen this myself, it was deliberately humiliating and violent and that plays across into the real world, it plays across in to people taking actual real world actions against ourselves and that has happened to me." She said: "It's happened to a lot of my colleagues and I do think, I mean the worry for me is actually more with children and we wouldn't want people to see these things on the walk to school. If they did, they'd be in therapy." But the former Tory MP, who is seeking a return to Parliament, said "upsides of the job far outweigh the downsides of being in the public eye". Dame Penny was made aware she was a victim of deepfake porn last July by Channel 4 News alongside other high-profile female politicians including Angela Rayner - now Deputy Prime Minister - and the senior Tory MP Dame Priti Patel. In January the government unveiled plans to make creating explicit 'deepfake' images a criminal offence. The new legislation will ensure those who make and share intimate images without consent will face up to two years in jail. People who install equipment to take these images could also be imprisoned for up to two years. Dame Penny, who had a starring role at Charles III's coronation, became a dame at the King's Birthday Honours list in June. The top Tory, who held a string of Cabinet posts, said at the time: "It is lovely to be appreciated in this way, and I'm very conscious that everything I have ever got done has been with the help and efforts of others."
Daily Record
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Fiona Phillips husband shares 'daily torment' as Alzheimer's takes grip
Fiona Phillips was tragically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2022 and now her husband Martin Frizell has opened up about her their daily struggles as the condition has taken over both their lives. Fiona Phillips husband Martin Frizzell has remained steadily by her side following her Alzheimer's diagnosis. The former This Morning producer, who has been married to Fiona for 28 years, opened up on the heartbreaking reality of her health decline. Fiona was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's in 2022 but didn't publicly share her diagnosis until 2023. Both of her parents and her uncle also had the brain disease, which still stands as the most common form of dementia across the UK. It has remained the nation's primary cause of death for a decade, making it a deeply personal pain for Martin as he witnesses his wife of nearly three decades battling the condition. "I used to say good days and bad days, now I just say bad days or wretched days, I think wretched is a great word for it," he revealed during a recent BBC Newsnight interview, as reported by the Mirror. He also shared how the illness has impacted his wife, as he continued: "In the cab ride, 35 minutes, she asked me 72 times, where are we going?'" It comes following a recent interview when Martin gave an update on Fiona's health, in a heartbreaking revelation that she often doesn't recognise him as her husband. He admitted that she once believed she was being kidnapped, unaware of who he was. The former TV star has been opening up about his wife's condition prior to the release of their upcoming joint autobiography, Remember When: My Life with Alzheimer's. Speaking to Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary on This Morning, he revealed: "In the book there's a photo of her looking great and smiling but what you don't know is she thought I kidnapped her." Candidly discussing the heartbreaking nature of the illness, Martin explained Fiona often asks to 'go home' to her mum and dad, heartbreakingly unaware they have passed away. "She does recognise me most of the time - she doesn't quite know I'm her husband - but she knows who I am. Every now and then she'll want to go home to her parents and I haven't the heart to say 'they aren't here'," Martin explained. Fiona, 64, originally believed she was experiencing menopausal changes when she began suffering from "brain fog and anxiety". The mum-of-two later received the same tragic diagnosis of both her own parents, having previously cared for them herself. Martin, who presented This Morning for a decade, quit his role in February to look after Fiona. In extracts from their book featured in the Daily Mail, he described his wife's current needs. "It is January 2025 as I write this, and Fiona needs a lot of help," Martin stated. "She needs help showering and brushing her teeth. She can do these things physically, but is unable now to think about how she should do them... "I wash Fiona's hair because she wouldn't know what shampoo or conditioner to use or how wet her hair needs to be or that she must rinse the soap suds out afterwards. And most nights I'll say, 'Right, we need to brush our teeth before we go to bed,' and I'll put the toothpaste on the brush and hand it to her." While Fiona is capable of dressing herself, Martin pointed out that she doesn't always get it "correctly" and may wear items inside out. He also shared that she grows attached to certain clothes, preferring to wear them repeatedly.
The National
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Backbench MPs should remain loyal to constituents, not parties
The very use of that term speaks volumes about how the party leadership may regard both its troops and any perceived dissension from the party line. This follows a year-long freeze of her Labour credentials dating from a letter Diane wrote to The Observer in early 2023. It also follows the suspension of seven other 'miscreants' who had the temerity to suggest the two-child cap should be history and had no place under a Labour Government. And, of course, the massive recent rebellion over changes to welfare eligibility. Featuring, among very many others, all of the latest MPs to lose the whip. READ MORE: 'Time to take action': What it was like at the national Palestine demo in Edinburgh At which stage, the Labour leadership earnestly assured its flock that it would listen more intently to its backbenchers and absolutely didn't regard the latter as mere 'voter fodder'. Abbott's letter said, not very controversially, that the kind of lifelong racism encountered by black and brown people, differs from the kind of prejudice suffered by Irish people, Travellers and Jewish people. 'Any fair-minded person will know what I meant,' she later said in a statement to BBC Newsnight. Indeed. Surely a textbook example of 'we ken whit she meant'. (Image: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire) In an interview for James Naughtie's Reflections programme last Thursday, she said she had no regrets about these remarks despite having apologised for them at the time. She reiterated that face colour is an immediate red rag to racists in a way that their identity probably isn't for other minorities. Cue portions of the Labour roof falling on her head. Again. It may be that her real crime was a historical closeness to former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. At any rate, the Mother Of The House has now been unceremoniously flung oot the Labour house. You might think that a government with a large majority of seats on under 34% of votes cast in a poll where fewer than 60% of electors bothered to use their vote might display some humility. Rather than take a sledgehammer to crack people denounced as irritating nutcases. Especially since their MPs – more than half of them in parliament for the first time – are there to represent a constituency where two-thirds of electors either didn't vote for them, or simply didn't vote. The Labour Party's draconian attitude to dissenters suggests complacency and a tendency for overreaction. It also suggests they hope their hardline stance will result in fewer Labour MPs willing to take risks. Not so much the firm smack of government as political punishment beatings. From a Scottish perspective, the most instructive victim is Brian Leishman, the luckless Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth. Grangemouth, you will know, was Scotland's solitary refinery, a place the Scottish Labour leader promised to save during the election campaign. Leishman, unsurprisingly, thought he would therefore be on safe ground when he vocally supported the workforce. Alas, that, plus his stance on welfare reform, meant he would instead get his jotters. Without warning. He said, thereafter, that he hadn't been elected to make people poorer. He also argued that he'd been elected 'to be a voice for my constituents across [[Alloa]] and [[Grangemouth]]'. Not, it seems, if that voice fails to chime with the latest stance of his leader. Anas Sarwar's silence on this matter, at the time of writing, has been positively deafening. READ MORE: 55 arrested in Westminster as protests grow over Palestine Action ban The [[Alloa]] and [[Grangemouth]] MP says that the Scottish Labour leader has not been in touch since a WhatsApp message last January. You might have thought he'd pick up the phone over Grangemouth at least, if not over the latest party row which saw one of his own Scots Labour representatives publicly humiliated. However, Leishman says he still supports Sir Keir's leadership and 'I will be out campaigning to get Scottish Labour candidates elected for Holyrood next year. I'll be doing everything I possibly can to get Anas into Bute House'. Each to their own and all that. Also interesting is the role and function of MPs of all parties. They don't have a statutory one, but they do have a code of conduct based on seven principles of 'selflessness, integrity, objectivity, honesty, accountability, openness and leadership.' However, the code also acknowledges the challenges faced by MPs when the needs and views of their constituents come into conflict with those of the party whose rosette they sported on election night. Or, as the code puts it: 'As members of a political party, MPs are expected to support and promote the policies and principles of their party. However, this should not come at the expense of their duties to their constituents or the wider public interest.' So let's suppose that the chap representing the workforce at Grangemouth was doing little more than exercising his duty to his constituents and the wider public interest. Not even to mention demonstrating integrity objectivity, and accountability. The code does understand the complexity of the MP's role in a way their parties may not: 'At times a constituent's demands may conflict with party policy and your MP will have to decide where their first loyalty should lie.' And woe betide any MP if their first loyalty is not to their party, it seems. Thus far, the people who found themselves minus the Labour whip were, to a man and woman, all demonstrating their commitment to what used to be thought of as traditional Labour values. For other quite mouthy MPs like the usually admirable Jess Phillips there was instead a plea for party unity and a respect for party discipline. So says the MP who resigned from the Labour front bench in 2023 over the carnage in Gaza, having backed an SNP-instigated vote on a ceasefire. Then she said: 'On this occasion, I must vote with my constituents, my head, and my heart which has felt as if it were breaking over the last four weeks with the horror of the situation in Israel and Palestine.' This time, the tune seems to have changed and she says: 'Constantly taking to the airwaves and slagging off your own government – I have to say, what did you think was going to happen?' Maybe, Jess, they hadn't realised voting for the wider public interest shouldn't be a hanging offence in a party which once described itself as 'a broad church'. Or, as Abbott wrote on a social media post: 'Silencing dissent is not leadership. It's control.' But voting with your constituents, your head and your heart is not apparently an option for others whose inner voice tells them their party has simply got it wrong. Angela Rayner, one time darling of the Labour left, confined herself to saying that the Abbott situation presented 'a real challenge for the party' (sure is)! READ MORE: The Chancellor's words don't line up with her actions Rayner is an enigmatic case in point. She was, after all, a prime mover in getting the party to admit Abbott as a Labour candidate after her last long suspension. Labour's very own working-class woman has obviously decided that she can exert more influence as a deputy leader than a serial rebel with a number of causes. You might think that she had rather more in common with Abbott than, for instance, the current Chancellor. But for heavens sake, don't say so out loud if you have a Labour Party card about your person. The moral of this latest debacle is that if you get elected to parliament as a Labour candidate, please be sure to check in your conscience at the door. It has no place in the chamber these days.
